Court: No injunction for Hobby Lobby on birth control mandate

posted at 3:31 pm on December 21, 2012 by Mary Katharine Ham

Hobby Lobby is the largest business of some 40 lawsuits over Obamacare’s mandate that employers provide birth control and morning-after pills without copay as part of health insurance. Hobby Lobby is a craft store chain owned by a Christian family whose religious conscience is violated by the rule. They had hoped to get an injunction while their case is making it through the courts. No such luck:

A federal appeals court denied Hobby Lobby’s request for a preliminary injunction against President Obama’s birth control coverage rules.

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the Christian-run arts-and-crafts chain must comply with the policy as its case proceeds…

U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton ruled last month that Hobby Lobby must comply in spite of its belief that the “morning-after pill” induces abortion.

On Thursday, the appeals court agreed that the mandate did not appear to substantially burden religious exercise in the case.

The panel quoted a portion of Heaton’s opinion to deny Hobby Lobby’s motion for an injunction.

Please enjoy this quote about how religious freedom does not include the freedom to be not be compelled to buy other people stuff that violates your religion as a condition of owning a business. Have a blessed Christmas season, America!

“The particular burden of which plaintiffs complain is that funds, which plaintiffs will contribute to a group health plan, might, after a series of independent decisions by healthcare providers and patients covered by [the corporate] plan, subsidize someone else’s participation in an activity that is condemned by plaintiff[s’] religion. Such an indirect and attenuated relationship appears unlikely to establish the necessary ‘substantial burden,'” Heaton wrote.

[Hobby Lobby] is the largest employer challenging the mandate, and says it will now appeal to SCOTUS. Keep in mind, even if SCOTUS took up the injunction request – it would only be deciding whether to give HL a temporary reprieve – not the full merits of the HHS mandate itself.

If [Hobby Lobby] is not granted an injunction, it does not plan to comply with the mandate. The company says that would cost it $1.3M a day in fines.

The Little Sisters of the Poor take care of elderly patients in 31 countries, but on Dec. 16 a representative told the congregation of Saint Raymond of Peñafort Church in Springfield, Va., that her order could conceivably be forced to pull out of the United States if paying fines and penalties is the only alternative to compromising on the doctrines of their religion…

“[I]f we were to stop offering health insurance rather than comply with the mandate,” she told the National Catholic Register in October, “we would have to pay a $2,000 penalty per employee. This penalty aside, it just does not seem right to us to stop providing health insurance to our employees.”

“If we chose to offer insurance without the objectionable services,” she continued, “we would honor our consciences, but we’d have to pay $100 per day per employee. … [F]or an organization with 50 employees, that would mean almost $2 million per year.”

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Liberals demand we must all be complicit in the murder of a million+ children a year, while simultaneously demanding the murder of 20 children is an excuse to disarm us all, so millions more can be butchered.

might, after a series of independent decisions by healthcare providers and patients covered by [the corporate] plan, subsidize someone else’s participation in an activity that is condemned by plaintiff[s’] religion.

“Independent decisions by healthcare providers and patients”? Seriously? The government, through HHS, has decreed that all insurers must issue policies that provide contraceptives and abortion pills to insureds. Obamacare requires all employers with more than 50 FT employees to provide health insurance. So where exactly does all this “independent” decision-making come into play? The employer has no choice, the insurer has no choice, and the only choice the insured has is whether or not she wants to swallow the pills that the employer is required to pay for.

Our federal courts have become a bad joke. Unfortunately, the joke is on those of us who still believe in the Constitution.

so the gays and the druggies are just supposed to die for enjoying themselves, huh?

/

GhoulAid on December 21, 2012 at 3:48 PM

Life choices have consequences…no matter how severe they are, folks have to look at what they are about to chose to do and contemplate the consequences.

If you want to take drugs that’s your business, or if you want to have a same sex relationship that is known to be high risk. Its your business, but it becomes my business when you expect me to subsidize the consequences of your life style and choices.

I’m curious whether this could be solved by splitting Hobby Lobby into three companies — one of which (“HL1″) runs the stores Monday/Tuesday, the next (“HL2″) runs them Wednesday/Thursday, and the third (“HL3″) runs ‘em Friday/Saturday (they’re closed on Sunday). Any regular employee would get 3 paychecks per pay period, with 3 W-2s at the end of the year.

… The employer has no choice, the insurer has no choice, and the only choice the insured has is whether or not she wants to swallow the pills that the employer is required to pay for.

AZCoyote on December 21, 2012 at 3:55 PM

Well, at least until it comes time to take that RED pill Obama has promoted. Then the jack booted progressives will come in and force that final solution down the throats of the sick ‘for the good of the country’!

They’re sure coming down hard, trying to secularize everyone.
Turfmann: “I say we go with God’s law and let the chips fall where they may. I’m ready to go. How about you guys?”
Brave words. But going the way of our beliefs, we could end up in jail, isn’t that what Hitler did? Unfortunately, I’m not that brave….yet.

I’m waiting for my husband’s employer to drop our insurance next year. Then its onto the Obamatax exchange, & the bureaucratic panels determining what we can & can’t have. A dismal America for 50%, the other free Obama phone people are laughing as our monies get spread around.

First Amendment: A federal appeals court has reinstated lawsuits from two religious colleges against the HHS contraception mandate, saying promises to rework it aren’t enough. Can a group of nuns helping the poor be protected?

The appellate court reinstated those cases and ordered the Obama administration to report back every 60 days — starting in mid-February — until the administration makes good on its promise to issue a new rule that protects the colleges’ religious freedom. The new rule must be issued by March 31.

Very interesting article and there is much more on the reasons they made this decision.

the mandate did not appear to substantially burden religious exercise in the case.

Since when does it say that for someone to exercise their freedom of religion, being forced to do something against that belief, in order to gain relief, the act has to ‘substantially burden’ a person?

Nowhere in the Constitution does it mention that. If that’s any indication of the way the court will rule, it doesn’t look good. Unbelievable!

Ha, ha, tommer, very funny!
We may as well laugh, while we’re all doing “down”.
Only thing that helps me deal with all this madness, is that Obama voters may also feel some pain. Hey, wait ’til they see their payroll taxes in Jan! Or with the medical device tax, even rubber gloves will cost more.
Here’s the left (Salazar) eating their own; 30 (Obama voters?) people will lose their jobs because the government may have some stakes in imported oysters but are saving the environment (right); just follow the money. Feinstein putting up a fake objection.

Liberals demand we must all be complicit in the murder of a million+ children a year, while simultaneously demanding the murder of 20 children is an excuse to disarm us all, so millions more can be butchered.

I’m curious whether this could be solved by splitting Hobby Lobby into three companies — one of which (“HL1″) runs the stores Monday/Tuesday, the next (“HL2″) runs them Wednesday/Thursday, and the third (“HL3″) runs ‘em Friday/Saturday (they’re closed on Sunday). Any regular employee would get 3 paychecks per pay period, with 3 W-2s at the end of the year.

cthulhu on December 21, 2012 at 4:06 PM

Interesting. I was thinking of it from the other side: how I could have multiple employers so that I would technically work part time for each of them (but still do the same overall job) and thus be out of the evil, deathly grip of Obamacare.

You people are obviously are racist homophobes relgious freaks. God (or POTUS of you prefer) says it is OK to abort the lving (unless they have been convicted of murder and condemned to death). And he is going to take your guns away too.